Nation: The Winds of Autumn

Lashed by hot, howling desert winds, they are such a seasonal feature in
Southern California that fire officials give them names, like
hurricanes. This week "Thunder," "Indian Truck," "Lakeland" and five
other brushfires consumed 84,000 acres of hillsides and canyons in the
region. Only a week earlier, 63,000 acres near Los Angeles had been
blackened.

The worst of the brushfires was "Panorama," and it certainly lived up to
its' name. In its panoramic sweep the fire burned out 23,000 acres in
San Bernardino County, the area hardest hit by...